Trying to reach your teachers to tell them about a great app? How about teaching teachers to use their email more effectively? You can send an email, but that implies they don’t need the email lesson.  I have tried word of mouth (effective within a small group), email (will affect about 2% of the teachers), and bribery in the form of baked goods (this is actually why the word of mouth worked).  Every Tuesday, I try to reserve time to give teachers a mini-lesson, any time of the day, on using technology in the classroom.

After sharing my frustrations at @EdCampATL last year, several people suggested hanging an information sign in the faculty bathrooms.  Really?!  Well, yes, really.  And its working.

I have had two new teachers to the building show up because they read about it in the bathroom.  Yes, I did go to a meeting of the new teachers and tell them about it, but that did not stick. Apparently this does.  I had visitors to the school stop by and say they were interested in the lesson of the week or other information.

The current design is one page and I will keep that limit.  I provide short information – sometimes with a QR code, but not with a written out link. (Yes, I put one in, but no one tried it.)  No one wants to type in the bathroom, but taking a quick picture apparently works. The brief information I provide on the form is not the detailed discussion I give in the mini-lesson.  Often it is just informing people of the process or a deadline everyone needs to meet.  I am still playing with the design but trying to be consistent.  It is a matter of training the eye to go to a certain place for certain information.

I am playing with changing the background color slightly each time to give another visual clue that it is a new one.  The Tiger’s Tissue Tabloid gets placed in the bathrooms late Friday or early Monday.

Last, but by no means least, I appreciate my partner-in-crime, Ms. Poole.  Ms. Poole teaches math and accompanied me to the EdCamp.  Her energy and enthusiasm are infectious.

For an example, here is our second issue:  Tissue Tabloid 2

By the way, the Bitmoji at the bottom changes every week. And yes, I’ve had one teacher walk in and ask for a lesson in Bitmoji.  It will be on a Tuesday coming soon to a bathroom near you.